Page "Sherlock Holmes" Paragraph 37

Holmes's primary intellectual detection method is abductive reasoning.

" From a drop of water ", he writes, " a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other ".

Holmes stories often begin with a bravura display of his talent for " deduction ".

It is of some interest to logicians and those interested in logic to try to analyse just what Holmes is doing when he performs his " deductions.

" " Holmesian deduction " appears to consist primarily of drawing inferences based on either straightforward practical principles — which are the result of careful observation, such as Holmes's study of different kinds of cigar ashes — or inference to the best explanation.

One quote often heard from Holmes is " When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth ".